Coastal shapes and colours
My work represents two parallel streams of thought where all my initial ideas are set down into loosely figurative impressions of my surroundings.
From there I work on a continuation of the same idea but the rendering of light and atmosphere moves this time, much further into a colour abstraction of shapes and symbols that still have the essence of the things seen but are simplified into broader shapes broken up with elements of drawing. And it is this latter group of works on exhibition.
These paintings are a further exploration into the way I see light as it is affected by ongoing seasonal change in a southern coastal environment. By living within this space I am constantly made aware how much the light varies through the cycle of the seasons and all the subsequent weather variations. For example, the whiteness of a heavy sea mist lying over the town leaves only an impression of solid forms.
Conversely the brilliance of a summer sun bouncing off hard surfaces can create strong contrasts of white light and blue shade or an all white or cream composition with just the edges of forms apparent through the glare. The cooler months then make for softer muted tones with less contrast represented in shades of pinks, mauves and apple green.
The landscape itself is a rich mix of urban development and wide open rural spaces which interact with a variety of different vegetation. These plants and trees evoking textures and patterns, shapes and colours I have explored through an earlier series of works based on the garden an integral part of urban and semi-rural landscape. These led onto interpreting the rural areas beyond and abutting the surrounding developments, where the trees appear as blocks of tonal green next to yellows, oranges, ochres and a variety of blues.
Above the land, the negative space of sky holds the area below in place but is itself a further source of shapes as clouds form or streak across the void where the paddocks merge with urban constructions.
A slab of sky can become a square of blue above triangles of grey roof shapes or curves of cream, then rectangles of white set into spheres of green and yellow become the simplifying visuals to denote perhaps a more complicated series of buildings and plants but presenting it as a more arresting pictorial idea that is more expressive of the reality.
Breaking up the resulting composition seems to capture the very essence of the big changes in modern building construction and design on display everywhere. The style in gardens and surrounding spaces is also changing with the advent of sculptural plants like the Agaves and other large cactus and succulent varieties that stand out in relief from large rectangular walls or a line of fencing.
These mingle alongside tropical palms, a wide selection of native plants and then the older well established Norfolk pines and cypress found around the township of Cowes itself, where the older housing is more modest.
I find living on the Island is a constant reminder of the light and spatial starkness of central and southern Spain where I first began to seriously interpret my visual responses to landscape and urban man made structures.
These structures had been built to cope with a harsh unforgiving climate not unlike much of Australia, making for a landscape of whitewashed houses throughout the villages and towns, juxtaposed with fine Arabic architecture and large forbidding church structures where the Inquisition still seemed to linger within the narrow streets. The surrounding land consisting of sunbaked broad open plains divided into undulating acres of olive trees and orange groves stretching to the horizon. The sky above an endless hard blue expanse.
At the time I lived in a farming village perched on a steep hillside where the narrow cobbled streets stepped down to a central plaza no car could go beyond so mules were the main form of transport.
Everyday living was simple and basic but it made for a perfect template on which to try to base a future life where simplicity would be the key to juggling a job and the frustrating world of creativity where, I felt I had to find my way forward into a world of endless possibility but with a limited palette and skills. What resulted at the time were a series of pictures that represented the interior of the house with its whitewashed walls, each with a window view where the eye could escape into a panorama of landscape and sky.
In order to provide a central focus in some of the larger works I added the neighbours rogue cat and our Spanish tutors extraordinary Amazon parrot and it was these works which made up my first solo exhibition at Melbourne University Gallery in 1978.
A few years later I was living in Carlton close to Princes Park and it was obvious that just as in Spain, the locale and everyday life would be a rich source of ideas but perhaps seemingly not as exotic but quite unique in its own way.
The area had a mixture of housing styles closely built with wide streets and central nature strips and I found it challenging at first but it was the beginning for a number of exhibitions where I began using all the activities and shapes of the urban environment in semi-abstract impressionistic oil paintings and soft chalk pastels on paper. Working with these pastels has become a huge help in extending my understanding of the subtleties that could be achieved with light through colour, and it is a medium I have continued to use extensively over the years.
Around this time I also began using quite a lot of watercolour on paper to record activities and images at the local pool in Collingwood I frequented due to a nagging back injury.
This work culminated in an exhibition at Roar 2 in 1987 and was initially inspired by recalling Seurat’s “Bathers” in London’s National Gallery with its shimmering light reminiscent of Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus” in the Ufffizi in Florence.
The effect of seeing these two paintings in particular has always stayed with me as wonderful examples of the transcendental quality of great painting, and a lesson on how hard that is to achieve.
When I look back at the way my work has developed I can see how there are clear “stepping stones” to where I find myself today, “stones” that were not quite so clear at the time. This path is still meandering away into the future and it will be interesting to see where it leads.